Movie Dropouts

Kareena Kapoor opts out of Heroine: Madhur Bhandarkar wanted to cast Kareena Kapoor in Page 3 (which launched Konkona Sen Sharma as a formidable actress in Bollywood) and in Fashion (which gave Priyanka Chopra her first National award) but things did not work out. With Heroine, he felt the role was tailor-made for her and would do complete justice to her screen presence and talent. Kareena was initially uncomfortable with the steamy scenes she had to do with different actors. Then she was unhappy about the director being rude to her friend's father. The latest news is that she does not want to do Heroine because The Dirty Picture starring Vidya Balan is also about an actress going through a low phase. We think Kareena is making a huge mistake by not working with Madhur.

Katrina Kaif opts out of The Italian Job remake: Abbas-Mustan gave Katrina a superhit in the form of Race. She was a foregone choice for Players (the official Indian remake) and agreed to do the film. She then walked out at the last minute citing date problems and they were shocked. Sources tell us that Aditya Chopra has been advising her on her career choices and he asked her not to do Players because it is not more than yet another glamourous role. Why doesn't Katrina understand that she is made only for glam doll roles?

Saif Ali Khan opts of Dream Sequence: Saif Ali Khan was keen on working with Vishal Bhardwaj after the super success and acclaim of Omkara. Vishal Bhardwaj presented Dream Sequence to him and Saif agreed to do the film on one condition. Vishal had to direct a film for his production house and only then would he be part of Dream Sequence. Vishal refused for lack of a bound script and Saif turned down Dream Sequence.

Deepika Padukone opts out of Dream Sequence: After Shahid Kapur and Saif Ali Khan's refusal to be part of Dream Sequence, Vishal Bhardwaj decided to cast Vivaan Shah as the lead. Vivaan is Naseeruddin Shah's son and he impressed Vishal in Saat Khoon Maaf. Deepika was very excited about working Vishal at such an early stage in her career but she wanted to do the movie only opposite Saif and not a new actor. Also, her dates are already with Rohit Dhawan for Desi Boyz so she amicably refused to be part of the film. Choosing Desi Boyz over Dream Sequence is poor judgement.

Priyanka Chopra opts out of The Italian Job remake: From what we hear, she was not keen on sharing screen space with Katrina and there were date clashes (PC is one of the busiest actresses in Bollywood). Another story doing the rounds is that she said not-so-nice things about Rohan Sippy and Abhishek Bachchan caught wind of them. For those not in the know, Abhishek is best pals with Rohan Sippy, having worked together on Kuch Naa Kaho, Bluffmaster, and now Dum Maro Dum. So he had a word with Abbas-Mustan to replace PC.

Karisma Kapur opts out of Lamhaa: The Rahul Dholakia film was supposed to be Karisma Kapur's comeback film. With her porcelain face and blue eyes, she would make the perfect Kashmiri girl. She developed cold feet when unrest in Kashmir began. She feared for the safety of her daughter, Samaira and herself and turned down the film. The role went to Bipasha Basu.

Shah Rukh Khan opts out of Robot: Shankar originally wanted Shah Rukh Khan to play the titular role in the blockbuster but King Khan turned down the film. He had his sights on other projects at that time and eventually went on to make Ra.One. One more actor turned down the role which was eventually realized by Rajnikanth. Considering the blockbuster it has become thanks to Rajni's star power and charisma, does SRK regret refusing it? He wants to fine tune Ra.One to make it even better than Robot.